


We Walk The Plank

by whatwhatwhatttttt



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, Canon Compliant, Happy Ending, M/M, Not so oblivious Niall, Oblivious Liam, Where We Are Tour, if you want info on Hard Out Here read the notes, kinda larry if you squint and turn your head sideways
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-22
Updated: 2014-10-22
Packaged: 2018-02-22 00:42:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2488115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whatwhatwhatttttt/pseuds/whatwhatwhatttttt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the prompt: Liam gets a little too enthusiastic about Niall Appreciation Day, and secret feelings are revealed – so secret Liam didn't even know he had them. Shy sexiness ensues. </p><p>  <i>Liam felt dread pooling in his stomach. “Oh my god. <b>Oh my god.</b> I have feelings for Niall.”</i></p><p>  <i>“And it only took you several months and a fake porno to realize it,” said Zayn, grinning. “Now why don’t we get stupid inebriated and we can discuss your feelings in depth.”</i></p><p>  <i>“Sounds like a plan.”</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	We Walk The Plank

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lainy122](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lainy122/gifts).



> So I kinda took this prompt and ran with it. I realize that the sexiness isn't that shy in retrospect, but it is inexperienced? For the sake of this story's plot Sophia doesn't exist. If you're here because you want to know what the hell is going on with Hard Out Here you can find more notes at the bottom. Enjoy!

When Liam woke up to #NiallAppreciationDay all over his twitter, well, he had no choice but to roll with it. He slid out of bed and headed straight over to Niall’s room. He was preemptively snickering at the thought of the fan’s reaction to a picture of him and the irish boy snuggled up in bed. This may have been the reason that it didn’t even occur to him to knock before letting himself into his friend’s room.

“Rise and shine Nialler,” he called as he walked around the corner of the small hall area.

“Gah!” shouted Niall in response, tumbling out of bed onto the floor. “Liam!”

Liam took in his friend’s flushed cheeks, and the bedding bunched up around his waist, and burst out laughing. “Whoops, sorry mate. Didn’t mean to interrupt,” he said with a wink (or, well, an attempt at a wink. He was still working on getting the whole blink-with-one-eye thing down pat). He could feel his own cheeks heating up, he probably should work on announcing himself better.

“No worries, mate,” said Niall, because seriously, he was just that nice.

It was only as Liam was walking down to the bus later that he realized he had never gotten his picture.

\----

He was a menace that day. Even Louis was starting to get annoyed and frankly, that took a lot. He knew they were a bit exasperated (“Yes we get it Liam, Niall’s the best.”) but he couldn’t help himself. There was just something about the Niall that made Liam want to shower him with love. It maybe had to do with the way he was so easily flustered, or how happy he was all the time, but whatever it was, Liam couldn’t resist.

Currently, Liam was cuddling with the boy in question, while they watched the others play Fifa. “You guys are sickening,” Louis grumbled goodnaturedly.

“You’re just jealous Lou,” scoffed Niall, pulling Liam closer. Maybe that was it. Niall never seemed to get tired of Liam’s antics. Even when all the other boys had had enough, Niall was always there to smile and laugh and cheer him on. “Don’t listen to ‘em,” Niall murmured softly, “I reckon you’re alright.”

If Liam couldn’t stop grinning for the rest of the time, well, no one needed to know.

\---

Louis flopped onto the couch next to Liam. “Entertain me,” he stated, sprawling out across Liam’s arms. He made grabby hands at Liam, who handed over his phone with a sigh of resignation. “Oh god, you’re still on about this?” Louis asked incredulously. “Honestly Payno, you sure know how to carry on a joke for way too long.”

Liam just grinned, his eyes scrunchy up as he took back his phone. “The fans like it,” he mumbled, tapping on the keys.

Harry raised an eyebrow inquisitively at Louis. “The Niall thing, you know, like the Mrs. Niall Horan, let-me-dedicate-this-song, I love Niall thing.” Louis stated with a roll of his eyes. “He changed his twitter name to Mrs. Horan.”

Harry chuckled, “Good one.”

Louis threw his hands up in the air dramatically, “The two of you are the worst with jokes. It died way back on Niall Appreciation Day Liam, it should stay dead.” Liam stuck his tongue out in response. He was doing it for the fans, not himself. And besides, it was still funny, Louis just didn’t like it when he wasn’t the center of attention.

\---

“We want you to be more engaged with the fans,” the man said. What was his name again? Ryan? Robbie? Liam couldn’t bring himself to care.

“That’s a bit hard when you control everything we do and say,” Louis pointed out snappily. Liam shot him a sympathetic glance, they all knew Louis got the most flak from management, no matter what he did.

The man barely spared the oldest boy a glance, “Maybe try tweeting a bit more.”

“No guarantees it won’t be deleted though,” Louis muttered.

When the meeting finally adjourned Louis took off with Zayn. Liam heard the tail end of “-need a new tatt and a smoke.” and figured he’d best leave them alone. He jogged to catch up with Harry instead.

“You good?” he asked, taking in his friend’s pinched expression.  
“Yeah, fine. Just, like, you know, I worry. I hate how management does this.” Harry said, chewing at his lip.

Liam felt his own frustration bubbling inside of him. He knew he didn’t have it as bad as some of the other boys, but in a way that made it worse. His band mates had to struggle and suffer while he walked around, free to do as he pleased. He pulled out his phone and clicked the Twitter app. “Well, if management wants us to tweet more…” he said, waggling his eyebrows at the younger boy.

Harry couldn’t help a small grin in return, “What are you going to do?” he asked, leaning over to peer at the screen.

“Nothing too big, just going to add another layer of homoeroticism to this band.”

“Homoeroticism, ohh, big word Payno,” he heard from behind him. He turned to see Niall walking over. “What have you done now?”

Harry burst out laughing as he read the tweet. “Look’s like you’ve found your biggest fan Niall.”

Niall hooked his head over Liam’s shoulder to see the screen. “Oh, you’re really gonna piss the suits off.” He said, chuckling. Liam couldn’t bring himself to care.

\---

It did piss management off, but Liam couldn’t bring himself to care too much. They were playing stadiums, they were working their butts off, and now they had announced their new album. Management could go ahead and hop right off. He told Zayn as much.

“You need to relax Liam, I don’t think I’ve seen you wound up like this since X Factor.” Zayn said, peering up at him from under a mountain of blankets.

“I’m not wound up!” Liam exclaimed, pacing back and forth along the length of the room.

Zayn arched his eyebrow. “I’m a little wound up,” Liam admitted.

“Go on a holiday during the next break. Take a little me-time. I think you need to get some space.”

Liam couldn’t deny that a vacation sounded amazing at the moment. “I’ll think about it,” he conceded, “we have a lot of work we should be doing during the break.”

Zayn rolled his eyes, “We always have work,” he pointed out. “Now come cuddle or go away, I’m trying to sleep.”

\---

“When I said ‘me-time’ this isn’t what I had in mind.” Zayn said, looking at Liam’s plane ticket. “Vegas? With Niall?”

“What’s wrong with going with Niall?”

“Nothing, nothing. Jeez. Just like, I thought maybe it would be good for you to get away from everything. Including all of us.” Zayn said, shrugging his shoulders. “So you didn’t have to stress.”

“I never stress with Niall. It’s pretty much impossible.” Liam said, “You can come to if you want?”

Zayn laughed, “Yeah no thanks, I don’t know if I want to be the third wheel there.”

Liam shot him a confused look. “What are you on about?” he asked.

“Mhmm, nothing. Nothing at all.”

\---

Liam was drunk. Very drunk. Like, whoops, there’s the floor and he was lying on it drunk. Probably by now he should have learned how to handle his liquor but- well, he obviously hadn’t. He looked around wildly, searching for Niall. It had been his idea to go to this party. There he was, sitting on a couch next to some pretty redhead. He lurched his way over to the blond haired boy.

“Niall! Niallllll, Nialler, N-man,” he slurred as he slung an arm around his friend. Niall seemed to be in a considerably better state than him, but his cheeks were looking pretty red, so Liam couldn’t be sure. Red cheeks meant you were drunk, right?

“Woah Liam, Jesus, you are such a lightweight.” Niall said, laughing. “When’re you ever gonna learn?”

“Not today,” he drawled in response. He rested his head on Niall’s shoulder and looked up at his friend. His cheeks were flushed, and his lips all red and bitten, and Liam thought he looked quite good. He could probably pull someone tonight, if Liam stopped draping himself all over him. But the thought of Niall going home with someone else made Liam’s heart clench up. He looked around suddenly, wanting to see if anyone was checking the Irish boy out. “We should go,” he said. “All these people want you.”

“What are you on about,” Niall chuckled. “You really want to go?”

“Wellllll,” he said, dragging out the word far longer than necessary. “Not really,” he admitted, “let’s go dance!”

Niall shook his head fondly, “You go dance Liam, I’ll watch.”

So Liam lurched his way onto the dance floor, and starting busting his moves. Niall was cracking up as he went to do his signature spin. Only, his foot caught on the floor (there was something there, he swore) and he fell and OW. His wrist really hurt. Niall was by his side in an instant. “Woah Liam, you alright?”

Liam held up his arm in response, where his hand was pointing in a very not alright direction. “Oh gross,” Niall said, wrinkling his nose. “Looks like we’re going to the ER.”

“Sorry,” said Liam, his shoulders slumping. He didn’t want to ruin Niall’s evening.

“Nothing to be sorry about, you donut,” said Niall. “Let’s go.”

The trip to the ER was uneventful. Liam was having a hard time focusing on anything but how much his wrist hurt, so there wasn’t much talking. He sat slumped against Niall, who was soothingly brushing his fingers through Liam’s hair. “Almost there,” Niall said softly.

The doctor declared it a broken wrist, which was unsurprising. She slapped a cast on him, and gave him some painkillers, with strict instructions not to take any tonight. “You’ve been drinking too much,” she said sternly.

“Give ‘em here,” said Niall. “I’ll make sure he gets them tomorrow once he’s sober.”

“Hey,” Liam whined, “You’re not sober either.”

Niall rolled his eyes fondly, “I’ve been drinking since I was 11 years old Liam. I’m a hell of a lot more sober than you.” He tucked the painkillers into his pocket. “Now let’s get you to bed.”

When they were back in the hotel Niall helped Liam get into his pajama pants and gave him a glass of water to drink. “You’re going to feel like shit tomorrow,” he said with a little frown. He turned to go and Liam grabbed his wrist.

“Stay and cuddle me,” he said, pulling Niall back towards the bed.

“Well,” said Niall with a small grin, “if you insist.” He slid under the covers, snuggling up against Liam’s side.

Liam fell asleep quick and easy, and it definitely didn’t have anything to do with the warm presence at his side.

\---

“You might want to stay away from twitter for a bit,” said Louis, waggling his eyebrows exaggeratedy. “There’s an interesting video going around.”

Liam felt his stomach drop, “What do you mean? What video?”

The other boys were lounging about in Louis’ room as well, but they perked up at the mention of the video. “I didn’t see anything yet,” said Harry.

Louis typed a few things on his laptop. “Just one sec,” he said, eyes scanning the screen. “There we go.” He turned the computer so that it faced the boys.

“Woah, Liam, didn’t know you had it in you to make a sex tape,” said Zayn, leaning in to get a closer look.

“That’s not me!” spluttered Liam.

“Liam, we accept you no matter what you-” Louis broke off, falling into a fit of laughter. “I’m sorry- it’s just too funny. Of all of us they had to pick you?”

“But you know that’s not me right? I wouldn’t!”

“Obviously it’s not you.” scoffed Niall. “The jaw line is all wrong, not to mention the way they messed up your beard. And who in god’s name where’s a hat while they’re having sex.”

Louis, having recovered from his small fit, turned on Niall. “You sure managed to analyze that video awfully well, considering you just saw it.”

“Who says that’s the first time I saw it?” asked the irish boy.

Liam’s cheeks heated up as he involuntarily imagined Niall sitting alone in his room watching his look-a-like screw around with some boy. He jeans suddenly seemed very tight. “I have to go talk to management,” he choked out, and fled from the room.

\---

Niall pushed the door to Liam’s room open rather roughly, all things considered. He shouldered past Liam, turning to face him in the middle of the room. “100 percent not gay, Liam?” His voice was sryupy and slow, and Liam could smell scotch on his breath.

“Um, yeah?” Liam replied meekly.

“That’s a pretty bold declaration to make.”

“What are you getting at?”

“I don’t know,” said Niall, sitting down on Liam’s bed heavily. “I just wouldn’t be so hasty. I wouldn’t say it.”

Liam swallowed nervously, “And what would you say then?” he asked, his heart feeling like it was going to beat out of his chest.

Niall’s eyes flitted around the room. “Maybe… maybe 50 percent?”

Liam’s throat went dry. “So like, this is you coming out to me?”

Niall shrugged, as if to say: was I ever really in? It was a good point, Liam had, in the past, walked in on Niall with both boys and girls alike. Still, this was the first time his friend had actually confirmed anything.

“But you’re seriously completely straight? I mean, power to you if you are, but…”

“Well, it might be more like 70/30,” said Liam. Niall arched an eyebrow in response.  
“Maybe 60/40?”

“Cheers Payno,” said Niall, grinning. “Those are odds I can work with.”

“What?” Liam asked, but then Niall slid to his knees in front of him, and Liam wasn’t doing much talking at all.

\---

“I hooked up with Niall.” Liam groaned into the phone. He was currently sitting in the hotel bathroom. Niall had left about 10 minutes ago, after giving Liam a very good, very thorough blowjob.

“What?” came the tinny voice through his phone, and hey, that didn’t sound like Louis.

“You slept with Niall?” another voice sounded.

“Louis!” exclaimed Liam, “do you have me on speaker?”

“Well yeah, it’s just the lads. One sec, we’ll come over to your room.” With a click the line with dead. Liam groaned, putting his face in his hands. He thought talking about it with Louis would be hard enough, but now Zayn and Harry were going to be there too?

He was just exiting the bathroom when his hotel room door was pushed open. Zayn and Louis quickly filed in. “Where’s Harry?” Liam asked, confused.

“He went to talk to Niall, find out his side of things,” replied Louis. “So you had sex with him?”

“No!” Liam exclaimed, “we didn’t like, have sex. He just, you know…”

Louis rolled his eyes, “No Liam, I don’t know.”

“He gave me a blowie.”

“Wow,” said Zayn, “I mean good for you mate, but how exactly did that happen?”

“I don’t know, he was drunk! Oh my god, did I take advantage of him?” asked Liam, looking around at the two boys wildly. “I’m a terrible person.”

“Okay, woah there. Calm down. Have you ever known Niall to do something he didn’t want to because he was drunk?” asked Louis.

“He’s right Li. Niall doesn’t really do drunken regrets like the rest of us.” Zayn added.

“Remember that one time he got so wasted and he crossdressed, like, full heels and everything?” Louis asked, looking at Liam for his response. He nodded slowly. “And what did he say the next day?”

“He said he’d always wanted to try it, and he just needed a courage boost.” Liam recited back.

“Exactly, so don’t worry about Niall. Worry about you. Where does this leave you in terms of Niall?” asked Zayn.

Liam groaned, “I don’t know! I mean, he’s Niall. We’ll all kinda weird when it comes to Niall.”

“Liam, I love you, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, but Zayn and I would never sleep with Niall. Ever. You’re kinda the odd man out here.”

Liam felt dread pooling in his stomach. “Oh my god. _Oh my god._ I have feelings for Niall.”

“And it only took you several months and a fake porno to realize it,” said Zayn grinning. “Now why don’t we get stupid inebriated and we can discuss your feelings in depth.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

\---

The next night found Liam knocking gently on Niall’s hotel door. The blond haired boy opened it up, raising his eyebrows at the sight of Liam standing in front of him. “Oh boy, so we’re doing this talk now?” he asked, stepping aside so that Liam could come in.

“I get it Liam, it was a mistake, won’t happen again, no worries-”

“Niall.”

“You’re straight, I was drunk, bad decisions were made-”

“Niall wait-”

“I forced myself on you, I’m sorry. We can just move on-”

“Niall shut up and let me speak okay!” exclaimed Liam exasperatedly.

Niall’s jaw clicked shut. “I, um, I don’t want to move on.” Liam said.

“What?”

“I think I maybe, kinda like you. A lot. And I like hanging out with you and I like making you laugh and I also like the other stuff we’ve done,” at his own words Liam could feel his face heating up.

“The other stuff Payno?” teased Niall, “What other stuff exactly are we talking about?”

“Other stuff like this,” Liam said, leaning down and kissing Niall in response.

Niall pulled back grinning, “I’m still a little foggy. I might need a more indepth explanation.”

Liam smiled. “I think I can give you,” he said, capturing Niall’s lips once more.

\---

Liam wasn’t exactly shocked to see Niall enter his room after his newest tweet. “I hear you’re bored Liam,” he said, grinning wickedly.

“Well, you know,” said Liam, trying to sound nonchalant, “nothing on tv… can’t do much without my good hand.”

“I reckon I can fix that,” said Niall, crawling up onto the bed so that he was straddling Liam. He pushed Liam til he was lying flat on his back, then leaned down and latched his mouth onto Liam’s neck. Liam couldn’t help the groan that came out of him. He and Niall had been fooling around quite regularly since they had officially started seeing each other, but that didn’t make up for the lack of his morning wank each day.

Niall had moved up to his jaw, lapping and nibbling at it. “No marks,” Liam murmured, turning his head to capture Niall’s lips with his own. The Irish boy eagerly explored his mouth, sucking hard on Liam’s tongue. His hands flitted down, skimming across his nipples before coming to rest at his belt buckle.

“No,” gasped Liam, breaking away from Niall. “I want to suck you,” he said, looking up at Niall through his eyelashes. “Please.”

“Fuck Li,” groaned Niall. “Yeah, okay.”

So far the most Liam had done for Niall was a half-hearted handjob/makeout session. Half-hearted because he had been using his left hand, which was ridiculously hard to do. Niall had wound up finishing himself off.

“Do you want to, like, on your knees?” asked Niall, sitting back so that Liam could move.

“No, no, like this.” He said, readjusting the two of them so that Niall was sitting up, leaning back against the headboard. He lay down of his belly and pulled the other boy a bit closer, so that his crotch was directly in Liam’s face.

Niall undid his zipper slowly, giving Liam ample time to opt out should he change his mind. It appeared to have the opposite effect, causing the brown haired boy to whine impatiently. Niall shimmied out of his jeans and pants, his cock springing out once freed from its’ confines. He was already steadily leaking precome.

“You’re so wet,” said Liam, his voice filled with awe. Niall squirmed, his cheeks heating up. He was about to reply when Liam leaned forward and licked the tip. Niall’s dick jerked hard as Liam lapped up the fluid pooling on his head. It was salty, and a little bitter, but he found he didn’t actually dislike it all that much. He flattened his tongue and gave Niall’s dick a firmer lick.

“Uhnn,” groaned Niall. “Don’t be such a tease.”

Liam smiled softly, enjoying how worked up Niall was. He leaned forward and breathed across the head, watching with interest as Niall’s fingers clenched in the bedsheets beside them. Then, slowly, he took Niall in his mouth. The weight of his dick was unfamilar in Liam’s mouth, and he swallowed convulsively around it. Niall’s hands shot to his hair, twisting and pulling. Liam began to bob up and down, trying to remember the best blowjobs he’d had in the past. “God Li,” moaned Niall. “Fuck, just like. Look at you, taking it so good. Like, ahh, like you were made for this.”

Liam hummed softly in response. He could feel his own cock fattening up in his pants. He brought his left hand up, and, to the best of his ability, worked at jerking off the part of Niall’s dick that he couldn’t reach with his mouth. “Not going t’ last long,” Niall grunted, pulling hard on Liam’s hair. “Not with that mouth.”

Liam sucked hard, sliding up and down Niall’s dick. He moved his hands down to cup the Irish boy’s balls. “Fuck!” cried Niall, his hips pistoning up. Liam gagged hard, his eyes watering. He pulled off as Niall came, dick jerking and painting his face.

“That is definitely a good look on you Liam.” Niall said, his dick twitching feebly at the sight of Liam, ruby-lipped and covered in come. “Now how about I return the favor.”

Liam smiled, sitting up to kiss Niall once more. “I think I’d like that,” he said, and it sounded like a promise.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so let's have some real talk about Hard Out Here.
> 
> I started that fic back in June, which doesn't seem that long ago but really feels like it is. I wasn't very invested in the one direction fandom, and I didn't have a lot of knowledge about the boys or their personalities. As you've probably noted, I stopped updating it in August. I took a bit of a break from fic for a while, because a) I was dealing with some personal shit and b) I was feeling really uninspired. When I got back to writing again, I felt off. I reread all I had done for Hard Out Here, and it didn't feel right. My opinions on the boys and who they were had changed dramatically.
> 
> So I put off writing the next chapter. I procrastinated, I hemmed and hawed, and the days turned into weeks turned into months. 
> 
> I'm sorry that you all have had to wait, but I will say this: I don't give up on things. I had to take some space, to sort out what was going on with the fic and where I wanted it to go, but I'm ready now. I am working on the next chapter, and I hope to have it posted within the next few weeks. I'm so grateful for all the kind words I received, and I hope that I haven't totally lost all of your interest. Thank you for patience!
> 
> P.S. Thank you Lainy122 for the awesome prompts. I hope I did your fic idea justice.


End file.
